Reflecting on “Reflections”

Art quilts that reflect the rich and diverse worlds of Virginia and North Carolina: the colors, shapes, textures, natural environments, structures, and cultures this was the prompt that thirty artists followed as they created their contribution to this group exhibition. Reflections can be the visual phenomenon of mirror images abounding in nature as much as in the windows of cityscapes; but reflections can also reference the mental act of contemplation and consideration. In both senses, reflection is the opposite of agitation and disquiet. This contemplative aspect pervades the creations that make up this collection of art quilts.

The works presented in this exhibition encompass numerous approaches: some are abstract, others are pictorial. Some use traditional techniques such as appliqué, others emphasize surface design. All, however, connect the process of artistic creation with reflections about the region on which this exhibition is centered: the U.S. states of Virginia and North Carolina. It is striking how the specificity of local experiences leads to broader themes explored in these individual artworks. Many of the quilts reflect on memory, personal ones of place whether Bradham’s Drug Store in New Bern, NC, or a grandmother’s kitchen and historic ones. At times, they are entwined.

Nature plays a significant role in this exhibition. The maritime and mountainous landscapes of Virginia and North Carolina find their expression in a substantial number of contributions, from ghost forests and coastal swamps to the peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. It is this close experience of the local environment that prompted the rich and diverse visual engagement with, and reflections of, the varied landscapes of the region. Nature also means human interaction with the natural world and the traces we leave, such as the gantry raised in the middle of coastal Virginia so that NASA could practice moon landings. Animals and plants are a key element of nature, and they have found their way onto these pieces. There are flies, bears, and birds, and there are flowers and trees the latter also serving as signifiers of solitude, mirrors of human identity and growth, and sentinels of human environmental impact.

These visual reflections invite us to take a step back from the urgency of the everyday and to contemplate how humans and nature intersect in this region, and what it means when we inhabit environments. They speak to us about the microcosm of individual experience and the human condition writ large. Each quilt measures 18 by 18 inches not quite a miniature but certainly a concentrated visual creation but each contains a world of meaning and experience, and together these artworks offer reflections on what it may mean to call North Carolina and Virginia our artistic home.

Catherine Altice, The Flyswatter: Flies in the Kitchen

Arlene L. Blackburn, Field Notes: Focus

Leah Cooke, She Became Her Garden

Paula Dean, The Resilient Stranger

Lana Dragon, Vienna VA Reflections

Sarah Lykins Entsminger, At the Edge of the Water

Kerry A. Faraone, Confluence of the Shenandoah and Potomac

Annegret Fauser, Ghost Forest #1

Ann M. Flaherty, This Boy

Debbie Gebbie, Pearl Moon

Gwen Goepel, Flowing Through My Life

Christine Hager-Braun, There and Then, Here and Now

Ellen Lindner, Seeking the Horizon

Janet Acuff Marney, Flowering Dogwood

Sally Harcum Maxwell, Apollo and Poseidon: Reflections of Poquoson

Aynex Mercado, Air Force Memorial

La Veda Longfellow Myers, Bearries and Blossoms

Olena Nebuchadnezzar, Overgrown Pond

Patti Louise Pasteur, Bradham’s Drug Store

Jenny Perry, Lake Resident

Karen Ponischil, Blue Skies

Susan L. Price, Blue Ridge Heron

Mary A. Ritter, Solitude on Currituck Sound

Joan C. Rutledge, Enlightenment

Margaret Duncan Storti, Tidewater Sunset

Pamela G. Swearingin, The Quiet Place

Naomi Swyers, Quiet Spirit

Karin Täuber, Natural Bridge

Betsy True, Wetlands Reflections

Kevin Womack, Crossed Out